Tag: theory of mind

Brain Synchronization Study Evinces the Image of God

brainsynchronization study

BY FAZALE RANA – DECEMBER 13, 2017

As I sit down at my computer to compose this post, the new Justice League movie has just hit the theaters. Even though it has received mixed reviews, I can’t wait to see this latest superhero flick. With several superheroes fighting side-by-side, it begs the question: “Who is the most powerful superhero in the DC universe?”

I’m not sure how you would respond, but in my opinion, it’s not Superman or Wonder Woman. Instead, it’s a superhero that didn’t appear in the Justice League movie (but he is a longtime member of the Justice League in the comic books): the Martian Manhunter.

Originally from Mars, J’onn J’onzz possesses superhuman strength and endurance, just like Superman. He can fly and shoot energy beams out of his eyes. But, he also has shapeshifting abilities and is a powerful telepath. It would be fun to see Superman and the Martian Manhunter tangle. My money would be on J’onn J’onzz because of his powerful telepathic abilities. As a telepath, he can read minds, control people’s thoughts and memories, create realistic illusions, and link minds together.

brain-synchronization-study

Image credit: Fazale Rana

Even though it is fun (and somewhat silly) to daydream about superhuman strength and telepathic abilities, recent work by Spanish neuroscientists from the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language indicates that mere mortals do indeed have an unusual ability that seems a bit like telepathy. When we engage in conversations with one another—even with strangers—the electrical activities of our brains synchronize.1 In part, this newfound ability may provide the neurological basis for the theory of mind and our capacity to form complex, hierarchical social relationships, properties uniquely displayed by human beings. In other words, this discovery provides more reasons to think that human beings are exceptional in a way that aligns with the biblical concept of the image of God.

Brain Synchronization

Most brain activity studies focus on individual subjects and their responses to single stimuli. For example, single-person studies have shown that oscillations in electrical activity in the brain couple with speech rhythms when the test subject is either listening or speaking. The Spanish neuroscientists wanted to go one step further. They wanted to learn what happens to brain activities when two people engage one another in a conversation.

To find out, they assembled 15 dyads (14 men and 16 women) consisting of strangers who were 20–30 years in age. They asked the members of each dyad to exchange opinions on sports, movies, music, and travel. While the strangers conversed, the researchers monitored electrical activities in the brains using EEG technology. As expected, they detected coupling of brain electrical activities with the speech rhythms in both speakers and listeners. But, to their surprise, they also detected pure brain entrainment in the electrical activities of the test subject, independent of the physical properties of the sound waves associated with speaking and listening. To put it another way, the brain activities of the two people in the conversation became synchronized, establishing a deep connection between their minds.

Brain Synchronization and the Image of God

The notion that human beings differ in degree, not kind, from other creatures has been a mainstay concept in anthropology and primatology for over 150 years. And it has been the primary reason why so many people have abandoned the belief that human beings bear God’s image. Yet, this stalwart view in anthropology is losing its mooring, with the concept of human exceptionalism taking its place. A growing minority of anthropologists and primatologists now believe that human beings really are exceptional. They contend that human beings do, indeed, differ in kind, not merely degree, from other creatures, including Neanderthals. Ironically, the scientists who argue for this updated perspective have developed evidence for human exceptionalism in their attempts to understand how the human mind evolved. But, instead of buttressing human evolution, these new insights marshal support for the biblical conception of humanity.

Anthropologists identify at least four interrelated qualities that make us exceptional: (1) symbolism, (2) open-ended generative capacity, (3) theory of mind, and (4) our capacity to form complex social networks.

As human beings, we effortlessly represent the world with discrete symbols. We denote abstract concepts with symbols. And our ability to represent the world symbolically has interesting consequences when coupled with our abilities to combine and recombine those symbols in a countless number of ways to create alternate possibilities. Our capacity for symbolism manifests in the form of language, art, music, and even body ornamentation. And we desire to communicate the scenarios we construct in our minds with other human beings.

But there is more to our interactions with other human beings than a desire to communicate. We want to link our minds together. And we can do this because we possess a theory of mind. In other words, we recognize that other people have minds just like ours, allowing us to understand what others are thinking and feeling. We also have the brain capacity to organize people we meet and know into hierarchical categories, allowing us to form and engage in complex social networks.

In effect, these qualities could be viewed as scientific descriptors of the image of God.

It is noteworthy that all four of these qualities are on full display in the Spanish neuroscientists’ study. The capacity to offer opinions on a wide range of topics and to communicate our ideas with language reflects our symbolism and our open-ended generative capacity. I find it intriguing that the oscillations of our brain’s electrical activity couples with the rhythmic patterns created by speech—suggesting our brains are hard-wired to support our desire to communicate with one another symbolically. I also find it intriguing that our brains become coupled at an even deeper level when we converse, consistent with our theory of mind and our capacity to enter into complex social relationships.

Even though many people in the scientific community promote a view of humanity that denigrates the image of God, common-day experience continually supports the notion that we are unique and exceptional as human beings. But, for me, I find it even more gratifying to learn that scientific investigations into our cognitive and behavioral capacities continue to affirm human exceptionalism and, with it, the image of God. Indeed, we are the crown of creation.

Resources to Dig Deeper

Endnotes

  1. Alejandro Pérez et al., “Brain-to-Brain Entrainment: EEG Interbrain Synchronization While Speaking and Listening,” Scientific Reports 7 (June 23, 2017): 4190, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04464-4.
Reprinted with permission by the author
Original article at:
https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/read/the-cells-design/2017/12/13/brain-synchronization-study-evinces-the-image-of-god

The Female Brain: Pregnant with Design

thefemalebrainpregnant

BY FAZALE RANA – JANUARY 25, 2017

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son.”

–John 19:26

I’ve learned the hard way: It is best to be circumspect when offering commentary about pregnancy, especially when women are around.

So, it’s with some hesitation I bring up the latest scientific insight developed by a team of researchers from Spain. These investigators discovered that pregnancy alters a woman’s brain. In fact, pregnancy reduces her grey matter.1 (Okay Fuz. Hold your tongue. Don’t say what you’re thinking.)

But, as it turns out, the loss of grey matter is a good thing. In fact, it reveals the elegant design of the human brain and adds to the growing evidence of human exceptionalism. This scientific advance also has implications for the pro-life movement.

The Spanish research team was motivated to study brain changes in pregnant women because of the effects that sex hormones have on adolescent brains. During this time, sex hormones cause extensive reorganization of the brain. This process is a necessary part of the neural maturation process. The researchers posited that changes to the female brain should take place, because of the surge of sex hormones during pregnancy. While pregnant, women are exposed to 10 to 15 times the “normal” progesterone levels. During nine months of pregnancy, women are also subjected to more estrogen than the rest of their life when not pregnant.

To characterize the effect of pregnancy on brain structure, the research team employed a prospective study design. They imaged the brains of women who wanted to become pregnant for the first time. Then, they imaged the brains of the subjects once the women had given birth. Finally, they imaged the brains of the subjects two years after birth, if they didn’t become pregnant again. As controls, they imaged the brains of women who had never been pregnant and the brains of the fathers.

The Effects of Pregnancy on Women’s Brains

While the brain’s white matter is unaffected, the researchers found that pregnancy leads to a loss of grey matter that, minimally, lasts up to two years. They also discovered that the grey matter loss was not random or arbitrary. Instead, it occurred in highly specific areas of the brain. In fact, the grey matter loss was so consistent from subject to subject that the researchers could tell if a woman was pregnant or not from brain images alone.

As it turns out, the area of the brain that loses grey matter is the region involved in social cognition that harbors the theory-of-mind neural network. This network allows human beings to display a quality anthropologists call theory of mind. Along with symbolism, our theory-of-mind capacity makes us unique compared to other animals, providing scientific justification for the idea of human exceptionalism. As human beings, we recognize that other humans possess a mind like ours. Because of that recognition, we can anticipate what others are thinking and feeling. Our theory-of-mind capability makes possible complex social interactions characteristic of our species.

Even though the pregnant women lost grey matter, they showed no loss of memory or cognitive ability. The researchers believe that the loss of grey matter stems from synaptic pruning. This process occurs in adolescents and is a vital part of brain development and maturation. Through the loss of grey matter, neural networks form. The research team posits that synaptic pruning in pregnant women establishes a neural network that plays a role in the deep attachment mothers have with their children. This attachment helps mothers anticipate their babies’ needs. The deep social connection between mother and child is critical for human survival, because human infants are so vulnerable at birth and have a prolonged childhood.

In support of this proposal, the researchers found that when they showed the pregnant women pictures of their babies, the brain areas that lost grey matter became active. On the other hand, they saw no corresponding brain activity when the mothers were shown pictures of other babies.

The Case for Human Exceptionalism Mounts

This work highlights the elegant design of human pregnancy and child rearing—features that I take as evidence for a Creator’s handiwork. It is nothing short of brilliant to have the surge of sex hormones during pregnancy, priming the brain to ensure a close attachment between mother and child, at the time of birth and throughout the first few years of childhood.

More importantly, this work adds to the mounting scientific evidence for human exceptionalism. Not only do humans uniquely possess theory of mind, but our theory-of-mind neural network is more complex and sophisticated than previously thought. It is remarkable that this neural network can be adapted and fine-tuned to ensure an intimate mother-infant attachment while maintaining relationships in the midst of complex social surroundings, typical of human interactions.

As an interesting side note: Recent research indicates that for Neanderthals, the area of their brain devoted to maintaining social interactions was much smaller than the corresponding area in modern humans, highlighting our unique and exceptional nature even when compared to the hominids found in the fossil record.2

Pro-Life Implications

In my view, this work also has pro-life implications. I frequently hear pro-choice advocates argue that the fetus is a mass of tissue, just like a tumor. But, this study undermines this view. It is hard to think of a fetus as being just a lump of tissue, when such a sophisticated system is in place during pregnancy to form a neural network (that is, a subset of the theory-of-mind network) in the mother’s brain that generates the special capacity of the mother to bond with the fetus at birth.

It also raises concerns for the health of women who receive abortions. Though speculative, one has to wonder what effect prematurely terminating a pregnancy has on women whose brains have become fine-tuned to bond to the very infants that are destroyed by the abortion.

Resources

“Placenta Optimization Shows Creator’s Handiwork” by Fazale Rana (article)
“Curvaceous Anatomy of the Female Spine Reveals Ingenious Obstetric Design” by Virgil Robertson (article)
“Does the Childbirth Process Represent Clumsy Evolution or Good Engineering?” by Fazale Rana (article)
“Neanderthal Brains Make Them Unlikely Social Networkers” by Fazale Rana (article)

Endnotes

  1. Elseline Hoekzema et al., “Pregnancy Leads to Long-Lasting Changes in Human Brain Structure,” Nature Neuroscience, published electronically December 19, 2016, doi:10.1038/nn.4458.
  2. Eiluned Pearce, Chris Stringer, and R. I. M. Dunbar, “New Insights into Differences in Brain Organization between Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280 (May 2013): doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.0168.
Reprinted with permission by the author
Original article at:
https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/read/the-cells-design/2017/01/25/the-female-brain-pregnant-with-design